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Cured Salmon

2/24/2011 10:08:00 PM

At our mega Christmas parties, (yes, I still have a zillion posts from them!), one of the more popular dishes was Nigella's gravlax. I've made it before, it's extremely easy, and everyone seemed super-impressed by it. The recipe is here, on the BBC food website, so I'll just quickly step through the process and we can look at the pretty pictures!

Fresh salmon fillets, loads of fresh dill, and some gin.

The marinading liquid is a mixture of salt, sugar, mustard and gin.

You slather it on the fillets, and blanket them in dill. (Yes, my fingers, kitchen and fridge reeked of dill for days afterwards!)

Then cover it closely with cling film, weigh it down with cans, and let it cure in the fridge for 2-3 days. Once it's ready, you'll see that loads of liquid has come out...

... and the fish itself is paler in colour and quite firm!

Then when you're ready to serve, just whack on some gloves (unless you want dill under your fingernails and yellow-stained hands from the mustard!) and slice it as thinly as possible.

Ooh... pretty!

If you're not eating it all at once, you're meant to just cut what you need and leave the rest whole. Ta-dah!

For the party, we served it with our other dishes-to-be-picked at, with some baguette. However, if you're serving it as a first course, I think some lovely Irish soda bread and cream cheese would be great. Or, if you're going totally luxe - freshly made blini, chopped red onion, chives and capers with a swoosh of crème fraiche!